www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2010/09/unlimited.html
The word 'unlimited' can be untrue....
Post categories: Computers and communication
Mariam, web team | 16:00 UK time, Wednesday, 15 September 2010
The dictionary says that 'unlimited' means 'Not limited or restricted in amount, extent, or degree', so you'd assume that an unlimited mobile phone package would be exactly that - unlimited. Not so. Many of the mobile firms use the term unlimited, when their call, text and mobile internet plans are subject to strict limits. And if you exceed those limits, expect large bills.
(Do you have something to say about this story? Tell us what you think by emailing us here. Don't forget to include 'Unlimited' in the subject line. Watchdog will publish a selection of viewers' comments underneath each story, both throughout and after the programme is on air. Please remember to include your name as you would like to see it published).
Joe Waters got a shock when he received a bill from Virgin Mobile for going over a limit on his unlimited text package. Joe admits that he sends a lot of texts, sometimes as many as a hundred an hour. Dennis Martin, Joe's stepdad jokes:
\"Joe can text for England, that's all he seems to do!\"
So for his first mobile phone contract, Joe chose Virgin, because the tariff said it came with unlimited texts.
Thinking he had unlimited texts, there was no stopping Joe, and in August he sent 3533 messages. But what he had failed to spot was that his contract had a fair use policy, limiting him to 3000 texts. Probably enough for most people, but not a texty teenager, and once Joe had used up his allowance, Virgin Mobile charged him for every additional text message he sent. Joe ran up additional charges totalling £85.
Joe doesn't think Virgin should have used the term 'unlimited' to describe a tariff that has a fixed limit.
\"I think it should be illegal to advertise something that's not true. You can't go around saying that you can have unlimited texts when it's not true. It's like putting something in the shop for 50p, and charging 60. It's not right.\"
But the problem doesn't just apply to text messages. Rob Alderman signed up online to a phone package with Tesco Mobile which included unlimited internet. But Rob hadn't spotted that to Tesco, 'unlimited internet' actually meant 500 Megabytes a month. 500 Megabytes would probably be plenty if you browsed the internet, checked your Facebook, downloaded emails and watched the odd Youtube video. But Rob was a heavy internet user and among other things, he used his phone to watch internet TV. This quickly took him over Tesco's limit.
When Rob exceeded the threshold by 100 Megabytes, Tesco Mobile suspended his service, and asked him to call. When he did, they told him he'd run up a bill of £411. A sum of money Rob neither expected nor could afford.
\"I didn't have 400 pounds to give to Tesco Mobile at the time. And I never expected to pay that kind of amount on a phone bill in my life.\"
Almost all of the main mobile firms use the term unlimited to some degree or another, and it means something different to each of them. Only one company has completely ditched the term.
Mobile firm Three says:
\"Consumers are right to distrust the casual use of the word 'unlimited'. When a company says something is 'unlimited' then cuts off customers or makes additional charges, consumers feel misled. False claims of 'unlimited' confuse people and make it hard to make true comparisons. We now state what you get clearly and upfront.\"
Vodafone say they no longer sell unlimited internet on their mobile tariffs, and their unlimited texts tariffs are exactly that - unlimited.
O2 say that:
\"Unlimited tariffs are unlimited, subject to a fair usage policy, which says as long as customers are just using their mobiles for personal use then they can talk for as long as they like.\"
Orange say they started to remove the term 'unlimited' from their consumer mobile data price plans last month. As for texts, they have a fair use policy of 3000 messages, but they said they wouldn't really take action against a customer, unless they were \"acting fraudulently or abusing the network\".
T-mobile say their unlimited internet plans
\"... always allow internet browsing, which is what most of our customers do most of the time. Some customers will use more advanced internet services like video streaming and online TV. These services are allowed, but in the unlikely event that a customer exceeds a fair usage limit of 1GB or 3GB (depending on the package) they will no longer be available. However, browsing web pages will still be permitted. T-Mobile does this to stop a small number of heavy 'cell site users' taking up all the capacity and damaging the quality of service for other customers, the majority of whom use the internet just for browsing.\"
T-mobile say their unlimited texts ARE unlimited, but they
\"... manually monitor excessive usages. We do this to protect against people or organizations misusing our unlimited packages to spam large numbers of people.\"
Tesco Mobile, Talk Mobile and Virgin Mobile all advertise unlimited internet and texts when they're limited, and they have been charging customers when they've exceeded these thresholds.
Lance Batchelor, Chief Executive Officer of Tesco Telecoms and Tesco Mobile says:
\"Tesco Mobile offers great value and excellent service to all our customers, but to do this we have to discourage unusually demanding usage that could harm the network and the experience of all Tesco Mobile customers. Our fair usage policy means that almost all our customers on unlimited tariffs will have more than ample cover for their needs.
\"Nonetheless, we apologise to Mr Alderman for his experience. We have written off the amount in question and added a goodwill gesture to say sorry for his inconvenience.
\"In fact, even before we heard of Mr Alderman's experience we had already changed our processes for implementing the fair usage policy as we recognised that we needed to do more for our customers.
\"The new process means that in the rare instance a customer reaches the fair usage limit, they will receive a text to point this out. We will only ever charge customers if their usage is continued and excessive. We also put a cap on additional costs so that customers are protected from unknowingly generating bills.
\"All customers receive details of our fair usage policy in their welcome letter. However in light of this feedback we will also be making the details much more visible on our website.\"
Talk Mobile statement:
\"An average Talkmobile customer uses 150MB of data per month. Indeed, less than 1% of our customer base ever exceeds our 500MB limit. The fair usage policy is designed to protect the other 99+% of Talkmobile customers against unfair usage and is in line with industry norms.
\"Our fair usage policy is published in accordance with ASA guidelines, is provided at the point of sale and can easily be found on each tariff page of the Talkmobile website.\"
Virgin Media Statement:
\"As per industry practice, in the vast majority of cases, our unlimited services come with provisions to help ensure fair use of our services for all customers, whilst protecting our services from abuse. Customers are made aware of fair use policies through our website, within advertising and within the documentation they receive when they take our products.
\"As per guidelines set by the Advertising Standards Authority, our generous fair use policies for our unlimited products ensure that the vast majority of customers are able to enjoy their services without fear of additional charges, and cases where customers exceed our fair use policies are extremely low. However as consumer behaviour is changing and mobile usage increases, we are reviewing our fair use policies and our use of the term 'unlimited' to ensure that our consumers have clear information on what they can expect to receive from our services.\"
Advertising Standards Review
The bodies who set advertising rules are currently carrying out a review of the term 'unlimited' in advertising. The Committee of Advertising Practice aims to update the guidance for advertising claims to make it clearer for consumers and advertisers. The committee is expected to make a judgement some time later this year.
Watchdog viewers' responses:
T-mobile did the same with me, i was on 'unlimited' texts and then got a £100 bill through saying i had gone over my limit.
kate driver - newcastle.
Hi,
I had the exact same problem from having an 'unlimited' texts from 3, I ended clocking up a bill of £100 from a £15 contract. It's ridiculous, the usage of the word 'unlimited' should be changed completely and the restrictions should be more clearly displayed.
Many Thanks,
James from Cookham
Hi
I decided to take out a contract with Virgin Mobile for my daughter due to the amount I was paying \"Pay as you go\".
Offer was \"Unlimited\" txts, 200 minutes and \"Unlimited\" e-mail.
My daughter on the 7th of September received a txt to say that her phone had been suspended.
I telephoned and was told that my daughter had gone over on the 31st August and was owing £169. No txts, no phone calls to warn of going over - absolutely nothing. I was horrified as I was the one who had set up the contract and was at NO stage told of a fair usage policy.
This is a rip off and to be honest I am not in a position to pay the bill - and that was just the first month.
Something needs to be done about this!!
Yours sincerely
Louise McDaid, West Kilbride
Topic Author
